Guide for becoming YouTube Partner and make money with it

December 31, 2015

As the largest collection of videos in the world and the second most popular search engine after Google, YouTube has taken an important place in every Internet user’s life. However, only a small part of users view YouTube as a way to make money, which is a crucial mistake, because there are already people making a fortune on YouTube. Of course, not every YouTube user is guaranteed to earn serious money, but if you’re doing everything right, success won’t keep you waiting.

The most popular way to monetize your YouTube experience is to make money from ads – in fact, this method is known all over the internet. However, even if your videos already have thousands or even millions of views, it doesn’t mean that these views will translate into earnings, because most YouTube ads require clicks to be monetized, which means that even a million viewers sees an ad, but not a single user clicks on that ad, the video creator will make $0.

The first step to making money with YouTube is becoming a YouTube partner. Even though there are other ad networks that are not affiliated with Google and YouTube, YouTube partners are generally more successful than their fellow video creators. Obviously, YouTube doesn’t accept just anyone as a partner – a contender must meet certain standards and guidelines. For example, your channel should have at least one video and not be involved in any kind of copyright infringement. Your video must follow not just YouTube’s terms of service, but also their community guidelines. The easy way to know if you qualify for the program is to go to Account settings → Account monetization and check if you can turn it on.

The types of ads that YouTube uses vary in locations and appearances and can be sorted into several groups. CPC ads make your money every time the ad is clicked by a user, under the condition that the click is valid. These ads typically take the form of pop-up ads in the lower part of the player. CPV ads are based on video views, but there is a catch – for a view to count towards your income a user needs to see at least 30 seconds or half of the ad. If a user’s computer has AdBlocker, he’ll never be able to see the ad, meaning you make nothing from his view. Plus, CPV ads typically pay less than CPC ads. There is also the third type of ads, promoted content in search result, but a YouTube user can’t make any money from these ads.

If you’re determined to achieve financial success on YouTube, make sure you found your own niche, otherwise your channel might get lost among thousands of similar channels. A unique theme, production effects, celebrity guests, and anything that can attract the attention of as many viewers as possible, must be used in order to gain a YouTube following. After you’ve built your user base, it is time to put effort into engaging with users. First of all, try to post on a schedule. Second, make your best effort to turn every video posting into a conversation with your users. Make the viewers care about your channel so much that they’ll always want to come back for more.

As an alternative, you can join a YouTube partner network. Not every one of them is to be trusted, but if you manage to find the right partner network, running your channel will become easier and more lucrative. In exchange for taking a cut of the income you make through ads, these networks can offer a few valuable perks, like royalty-free music, promotion of your videos, advanced video creation tools, access to coaching, and possible sponsorships. Of course, there are dozens of other YouTube monetization opportunities, but we’ll get to that later.